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H-WORLD DISCUSSION TOPICS |
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Here are topics of recent and lively H-WORLD discussions on issues relevant to research. For details, see the H-WORLD discussion logs at http://www.h-net.org/~world We are working on this item just now. Come back later!
- November 2007 (112 total postings)
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- "Why Study World History?" (November 1 - 15) This long discussion thread is a continuation of a thread originally started by Haines Brown last month. The first part of the discussion emphasizes epistemological issues such as the relationship between subject and object of study in history, the objectivity of produced knowledge, the political features of historical interpretation, the relationship between the past and the present, scales of analysis, power, politics and the uses of history, and the similarities and differences between the different approaches used in history (and other social sciences). This conversation helps to frame the discussion of the possibility/impossiblity of a world history. Only in the second part do participants explicitly answer the question "Why study World History". Reasons certainly vary however most discussants agree that by understanding the history of different localities (trajectories) and their interconnectedness, we may be able to better explain the world that sorrounds us today.This idea leads discussants to evaluate the preconceived inadequate notion that understanding the past automatically provides us with the tools to change the present-day world conditions.
- "Place Names" (November 7 - 19). David M. Fahey mentions Geoffrey Wheatcroft's article "The Globe, Politically Corrected," (Washington Post, 4 November 2007) and wonders about the rules for choosing the names of places, particularly the name of cities and countries. Jeff Shettler's question "Is it the victors, the native people of that place or simply the people who make the maps?" somehow summarizes the main variables that participants identified as the most important variables that are involved in the process where by names get stuck to places. The case of modern Turkey is reviewed in detail since it has changed its name several times in the last centuries. Other place names reviewed are "Myanmar", "Middle East", "Near East". Discussants also review the history of some words that refer to ethnic, religious, and/or racial categories (i.e., the term "Moor" and its association to African versus the Muslim World).
- "Exploration as uniquely European " (formerly "Recent historiographical sources")(November 17 - 28).
A request of textbooks for a class in Modern World History sent by Glenn McKnight turns into a discussion which prompted to characterize early european explorations (ca. 1400) as essentially different from those undertaken by non-european contemporaries.
Duchesne argues that "the Chinese and the Indians had a longer experience in long-range navigation, [however] this experience had a very different cultural atmosphere than the one undertaken by Europeans through the 1400s and 1500s." For Duchesne "the economist explanation" applied to the european enterprise "misses the 'essential' spirit of exploration, adventure, and individual achievement that was uniquely European." Most of the following postings contribute to unveil some of the notions that underlie the former radical portrait and to reestablish a more neutral, less moralizing treatment of the history of medieval exploration. A couple of postings at the end provides useful references that comment on the religious motivations that accompanied medieval explorers.
- "History of racism, racial sensitivity, and pedagogy " (November 20 - 26). Donna Halper asks for suggestions on how to discussion the history of the "N-word" in class. An interesting discussion thread that reveals a surprising variety of opinions among North American history professors about the way the topic should -or should not- be approached in the classroom.
- December 2007 (57 postings total)
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- "Statements of Prehistory" (December 11 - 14). Eric Martin asks for textbooks/articles with a clear statement of the relevance of knowledge about (pre-)history to contemporary issues. Several interesting examples are sent, most refering to the Paleolithic (references are listed and web links are provided). Most of the commentators reflect on the differences between "pre-history" and "history" as chronological categories but also as separate sub-disciplines. This leads to reflect on the different dimensions of past societies that can be grasped and the detail at which events can be reconstructed depending on the type of sources available. The thread evolves into a discussion of the association between literacy and elites, equal/unequal representation of minority groups, and the use of the term "civilization"as a value judgement.
- Itinerario 31,2 (2007)
- Interview
- Bede Moore, "Interview with Mark Elvin," 9-16.
- Articles
- Stefan Halikowski-Smith, "Perceptions of Nature in Early Modern Portuguese India," 17-50.
- Isabel dos Guimarãs Sá, "Charity and Discrimination: The Misericórdia of Goa," 51-70.
- Helder Carita, "Creating Norms for Indo-Portuguese Architecture: The Livro de Acordãos e Assentos da Câmara de Goa, 1592-1597," 71-86.
- Ines G. Zupanov, "Language and Culture of the Jesuit 'Early Modernity' in India during the Sixteenth Century," 87-110.
- Liam Matthew Brockey, "Jesuit Missionaries on the Carreira da Índia in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: A Selection of Contemporary Sources," 111-132.
- Review Articles
- Hector Omar Noejovich Ch., "The Spanish and Inca Peru," 133-136.
- Ronald Schultz, "The Seven Years' War and the 'Making' of America: A Review Essay," 137-142.
- Journal of Global History 2,3 (November 2007)
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- Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "The birth-pangs of Portuguese Asia: revisiting the fateful 'long decade' 1498-1509," 261-280.
- David Lindenfeld, "The varieties of Sioux Christianity, 1860-1980, in international perspective," 281-302.
- Charles Wheeler, "Buddhism in the re-ordering of an early modern world: Chinese missions to Cochinchina in the seventeenth century," 303-324.
- Harald Fischer-Tine, "Indian Nationalism and the 'world forces': transnational and diasporic dimensions of the Indian freedom movement on the eve of the First World War," 325-344.
- Roland Wenzlhuemer, "The dematerialization of telecommunication: communication centres and peripheries in Europe and the world, 1850-1920," 345-372.
- Vaclav Smil, "The two prime movers of globalization: history and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines," 373-394.
- A. G. Hopkins, "Comparing British and American empires," 395-404.
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